Tag Archives: Topic: Islam

Acton Institute: ISIS and human traffickers are animals, and they choose their prey accordingly. They seek out the vulnerable, the lonely, the searching. The internet is a fine hunting ground. There have been several stories of late of teen girls being lured from home to join ISIS.

CBS News: The leader of one of Christianity’s oldest communities reluctantly says that waging war against ISIS – killing their fighters – is the only way to stop the radical Islamists from destroying Christianity in Iraq. Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil speaks to Lara Logan for her report on the plight of thousands of Christians forced to flee ancestral homes from ISIS. Her story will be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, March 22 AT 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Al Arabiya: A United Nations investigation has concluded that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) may have committed genocide against the Yazidi minority in Iraq, urging the International Criminal Court to prosecute the militant group.

National Review: Johnnie Moore, formerly pastor of Liberty University and currently chief of staff to Hollywood producer Mark Burnett, has lately been devoting his time to doing something to help persecuted Christians — those displaced and under threat by the grave evil that is ISIS. He is author of a recent book called Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard.

Reuters: Muslim women teachers can wear headscarves as long as it does not cause disruption in school, Germany’s top court said in a ruling that overturns an earlier ban and may fuel debate about what some nationalist groups see as creeping “Islamization”.

Foreign Policy: Last August, President Barack Obama signed off on legislation creating a special envoy charged with aiding the ancient Christian communities and other beleaguered religious minorities being targeted by the Islamic State.

The Guardian: The thousands of foreign troops pouring into northern Nigeria to join the fight against Boko Haram have seized two towns from the Islamist extremists after fierce battles, accordingt to military sources.

Law and Religion UK: The ever-helpful Religion Clause blog reports a recent decision of the High Court of Madras that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 takes precedence over the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937.

Assyrian International News Agency: On Monday, February 23 ISIS attacked 35 Assyrian villages on the Khabur river in the Hassaka province in northeast Syria (AINA 2015-02-23). At least 9 Assyrians fighters were killed defending their villages. Up to 373 Assyrians were captured. 3000 Assyrians fled from their villages and are now in shelters in Hasaka and Qamishli.

Reuters: Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and Shi’ite militiamen sought to seal off Islamic State fighters in Tikrit and nearby towns on Tuesday, the second day of Iraq’s biggest offensive yet against a stronghold of the Sunni militants.

IJ Review: Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F) is no stranger to controversy surrounding their hiring practices in regard to religion and body composition. The latest case to be brought to the Supreme Court is due to alleged religious discrimination of A&F applicant, Samantha Elauf.

Religion News Service: Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd and former leaders of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination on Monday (March 2) called on President Obama to defend “the least of these” against the Islamic State, the militant Islamist group that’s also known as ISIS or ISIL.

NY Daily News: This week, Americans were bombarded with unnerving images of ISIS at home and abroad. In Brooklyn, three men were arrested for allegedly plotting to help the radical Islamist terrorists. In England, newspapers at long last identified”Jihadi John,” the masked figure seen on numerous decapitation videos, and published photos of him.

Juicy Ecumenism: ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State, Daesh…whatever you call them and for whatever reason you call them that, their actions are still the same. It’s good to be aware of their ultimate goal. Unless, of course, you believe that the earnest young lads (and lasses) of ISIS are just in search of gainful employment.

Religion Clause: The full transcript of this morning’s Supreme Court arguments in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores is now available from the Court’s website. AP reports on the oral arguments in the Title VII religious accommodation case, saying that the Justices seemed to support prospective employee Samantha Elauf’s position. At issue is the kind of notice that is needed to be given to an employer before its obligation to try to accommodate religious exercise is triggered.

Time Magazine: More formidable than its al-Qaeda precursors in the view of many experts, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is more than a network of terrorist cells or even a militia: it’s almost a nation.

Crux: The number of Christians abducted by the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria has risen to 220 in the past three days, as militants round up more hostages from a chain of villages along a strategic river, activists said Thursday.

SCOTUS Blog: Religion has been a hot topic at the Supreme Court recently. The latest chapter on the role of religion in our daily lives comes tomorrow, when the Court hears oral arguments in the case of a Muslim woman whom the retail chain Abercrombie & Fitch declined to hire because she wore a headscarf. Let’s talk about EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch in Plain English.

SCOTUS Blog: But what actually was at stake, it seemed, was what two human beings might say to each other in a job interview in order for both to understand whether a new employee, if hired, could work by the company’s rules. At a critical point in the argument, Justice Alito suggested an answer: Why doesn’t the employer tell the applicant what the rules are, and ask: “Do you have any problem with that?” Simple, right?

WorldWatch Monitor: Sources from Syria’s embattled Hassaka province confirmed at midnight on Tuesday, Feb. 24, that at least 72 Assyrian Christian families – thought to be around 200 people – from three villages have been captured by the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Reportedly taken to the Arab Sunni village of Um Al-Masamier, the exact number of Christian hostages from the Tel Gouran, Tel Jazira and Tel Hormizd villages remains unknown.

Reuters: Kurdish militia pressed an offensive against Islamic State in northeast Syria on Wednesday, cutting one of its supply lines from Iraq, as fears mounted for dozens of Christians abducted by the hardline group.

Reuters: A U.S.-led alliance launched air strikes against Islamic State on Thursday in an area of northeast Syria where the militants are now estimated to have abducted at least 220 Assyrian Christians this week, a group monitoring the war reported.

Patheos: I do not wish a single person’s death but IS must be destroyed and sadly there are men and women who have freely chosen to link themselves to this evil organization. They have committed crimes in their person for which payment must be made. In the light of eternity they need grace, but in the temporal realm they must receive justice. The church and churchmen can forgive and what we forgive on earth is forgiven in Heaven.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty: Samantha Elauf is a Muslim teen who was rejected for employment by Abercrombie & Fitch simply because she wore a religious headscarf to her job interview. Today her lawyers argued at the Supreme Court that no employer is free to engage in religious discrimination.

Baptist Join Committee for Religious Liberty: Wednesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. The EEOC claims the clothing retailer violated the civil rights of a Muslim woman, Samantha Elauf, by denying her job because of her religious headscarf. Abercrombie counters that they were not aware Elauf was wearing the scarf for religious purpose because she did not explicitly inform them.

SCOTUS Blog: Can a retail store’s dress code for its sales clerks get the management into legal trouble? Potentially, it can, if the code conflicts with the religious scruples of a worker seeking a job — at least if the store can find a way to respect those beliefs without seriously disrupting its retailing approach.

Al Jazeera: The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria, a monitoring group that tracks violence in Syria said Tuesday. The alleged kidnappings appeared to be in direct response to recent gains made by Kurdish forces. Few details about the fate of the hostages were available.

Ministry of Defence, Sri Lanka: President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday assured that as pledged during the Presidential Elections, an environment will be created where all communities can live in peace and harmony.

Bas News: A member of Mosul Provincial council says that Islamic State militants have pulled out of the strategic town of Tel Afar, east of Mosul in northern Iraq – but locals say the IS action is suspicious.

National Journal: The court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in the case of Samantha Elauf, who was denied a job at an Abercrombie store because of the headscarf she wears as a practicing Muslim. Abercrombie says it didn’t have to make an exception to its “look policy” for Elauf because she didn’t specifically ask for one—while her lawyers say it shouldn’t be up to job candidates to ask for religious accommodations.

Religion News Service: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (Feb. 25) will hear the case of a young Muslim woman who says the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store illegally denied her a job because she wears a hijab in keeping with her faith.

The Daily Beast: Last weekend in Italy, as the threat of ISIS in Libya hit home with a new video addressed to “the nation signed with the blood of the cross” and the warning, “we are south of Rome,” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi shuttered the Italian embassy in Tripoli and raised his fist with the threat of impending military action.

Crux: “The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard,” he said in Spanish and without a script, always a clear sign that a message is personally important to the pontiff.

Al Shorfa: The independent commission recorded 3,981,597 violations and crimes against Iraqis at the hands of ISIL from the time the group took over Mosul in June 2014 until early this year, according to commission member Fadhel al-Gharrawi.

Ecumenical News: An extremist group in a restive Pakistan province has threatened a local press club, saying that it must eject from its ranks four Christian journalists whom it accused of proselytizing using a television station.

The New York Times: Mr. Aly raised his son, Islam Yaken, in Heliopolis, a middle-class Cairo neighborhood with tended gardens and trendy coffee shops, and sent him to a private school, where he studied in French. As a young man, Mr. Yaken wanted to be a fitness instructor. He trained relentlessly, hoping that his effort would bring him success, girlfriends and wealth. But his goals never materialized. He left that life and found religion, extremism and, ultimately, his way into a photograph where he knelt beside a decapitated corpse on the killing fields of Syria, smiling.

Reuters: Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.

Religion News Service: The gruesome video released by militants from the Islamic State showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts in Libya has focused the world’s attention on the plight of Christians there and the government’s ability to respond.

Christianity Today: Over the weekend, a terrorist group with links to the Islamic State (ISIL) released a video, showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya. On Monday, Egypt and Libya launched warplanes in an air assault on Darna in eastern Libya, where the group is based.

Aleteia: “Their only words were: ‘Jesus, help me!’ Pope Francis said at the conclusion of an audience Monday with the moderator of the Church of Scotland. “They were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians.”

The Guardian: Egypt reported that its war planes had struck Isis targets in Libya, shortly after President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi vowed revenge for the release by Isis-affiliated militants of a video of a mass killing of Christians.

Religion News Service: Pope Francis on Monday (Feb. 16) denounced the brutal slayings of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by militants linked to the Islamic State, saying “they were assassinated just for being Christian.”

Ecumenical News: Bishops of the Chaldean Church have agreed to unite and face the rising threat of persecution of Middle East Christians, vowing that the church hierarchy will continue to care for families tormented by violent extremists.

Reuters: A group of Islamist fighters in Yemen renounced their loyalty to al Qaeda’s leader and pledged allegiance to the head of the Islamic State, according to a Twitter message retrieved by U.S.-based monitoring group SITE.

Christian News Network: Supporters of the terrorist group ISIS are flocking to Iraq and Syria at record rates with an estimated 20,000 foreign fighters joining the barbarian organization worldwide, reports state.

Ecumenical News: Leaders of India’s minority faiths have seized the momentum to push the issue of religious tolerance after U.S. President Barack Obama spoke out on the growing number of violent incidents targeting Muslims and Christians, among others.

Daily News: Niger’s parliament has unanimously approved the deployment of troops to northern Nigeria as part of a regional offensive against Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has launched several cross-border attacks in recent days.

Religion News Service: Nigeria’s election commission has postponed national elections for six weeks saying it would not be able to provide security for voters in the northeast region of the country most affected by the Islamist group Boko Haram.

Yahoo News: Nigerian Boko Haram fighters went on the rampage in the Cameroonian border town of Fotokol Wednesday, massacring dozens of civilians and torching a mosque before being repelled by regional forces.

Fox News: President Obama is expected to formally ask Congress to authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State terror group in the coming days, even as lawmakers said crafting and passing such a measure would be a challenge.

Christian Today: The husband of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy, has given a rare interview in which he urged the international community to speak up for his wife.

Christian Today: As it escalates its insurgency within Nigeria and in some parts of neighbouring countries, the Islamist group Boko Haram is reportedly preparing to use children and livestock to carry out attacks targeting civilians.

The New York Times (Reuters): Islamic State militants are selling abducted Iraqi children at markets as sex slaves, and killing other youth, including by crucifixion or burying them alive, a United Nations watchdog said on Wednesday.

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D. James Kennedy Ministries: This past weekend, the mainstream media was aflame as a result of Indiana’s “discriminatory” Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which Governor Mike Pence signed into law.